I am pleased to provide my comments on the Chris Cairns Foundation, our people and our activities.

THE FOUNDATION

After a highly successful push to get the Foundation established back in 2007 there have been some big transitional changes for us in 2009.  These changes have been for a variety of reasons.  Our previous working relationship was with Toll NZ and without them we could not have achieved what we have to date.  I admit that when Toll NZ’s freight and ferry businesses were purchased by the New Zealand government in 2008, I was unsure what that would mean for the future of the Foundation.  Fortunately those concerns were laid to rest when the new railways entity ‘KiwiRail’ agreed to become the principal sponsor of the Foundation.  This has enabled us to continue our work on raising awareness about rail safety.  I would like to personally thank the Chairman of KiwiRail, the Rt Hon Jim Bolger, as well as CEO Jim Quinn and all those involved with KiwiRail.

OUR PEOPLE

After I completed the rail safety walk from Auckland to Christchurch in September 2008, we said goodbye to our Foundation Manager, Patrick Jackson.  Patrick returned to Australia in January 2009 to further his studies.  He was an integral part of our group, was liked by everyone, and we were delighted with the work he contributed.

In March we decided to shift our base from Auckland to the KiwiRail offices in the capital.  We also began looking for a new appointment to replace Patrick.  We considered a few candidates but it was Megan Drayton who stood out as the ideal person to continue to take the Foundation forward.  Megan has a strong background in public relations and has been involved with rail in her previous employment.  I know she will be a valuable asset for us going forward.

There has also been a change in our Trustees with David Jackson, Patsy Reddy, Chris Doig and Terry Jarvis all standing down. All these people have contributed a great deal to getting this dream off the ground and I would like to sincerely thank them for their contribution. I am also delighted to welcome on board our new trustees - Sue Foley, Neil Wynn and Kevin Ramshaw, who join me and existing trustee Paul Dorrance on the Board of Trustees.

OUR ACTIVITIES

The major awareness raising event held in the past year was my walk from Kaitaia to Rolleston.  I am personally grateful to the hundreds of people who supported me on this vigil, both in terms of organising the event and in joining me on the walk itself.  This event generated massive public awareness about rail safety, with the walk being covered in newspapers and magazines throughout the country and on TV news programmes both at the beginning, during and at the end of the walk.  While it was disappointing that the walk didn’t raise more in public donations (perhaps due to it coinciding with the global economic downturn), this was never the main objective of the event, and I am extremely satisfied with the huge amount of media exposure we achieved.

Our second major event has been the Australasian Rail Safety Awareness week in July 2009.  This started in Australia, where I was invited to speak at the launch event in Melbourne.  My speech was well received, and I was told that Australia would like to replicate what we have done in New Zealand in terms of establishing a rail safety foundation. It was good to meet the Australian rail safety team, one of whom was sent the following week to attend New Zealand activities.

In New Zealand, the major focus for the Foundation during the week was to raise awareness about rail safety.  This was successfully achieved through a nationwide media campaign with a press release issued by the Foundation early in the week that commented on recent level crossing collision statistics.  This was published widely, and as the week progressed there were further newspaper articles and TV items which followed the Foundation’s activities around the country.  The Foundation also funded (together with KiwiRail) a North Island and South Island billboard campaign and contributed to the costs of purchasing and airing a nationwide TV advertising campaign.  Towards the end of the week there was a lot of awareness generated around a staged collision in Auckland, which was a great initiative by KiwiRail.  This gave a graphic insight into the carnage that is caused when a vehicle collides with a train.

Another major focus for the Foundation during the week was to acquaint ourselves with the new National government and other related government agencies.  We have been fortunate in the past to have Helen Clark and Harry Dynhoven as tremendous supporters of the Foundation.  So I was pleased to have an excellent meeting in parliament with Minister of Transport Hon Stephen Joyce and Associate Transport Minister Hon Nathan Guy.  I also spoke at a formal evening at the Wellesley Club which was attended by many key rail stakeholders.

Our board meeting in July provided an excellent opportunity for the new Trustees and Foundation Manager to meet each other, as well as to discuss the Foundation’s vision for the future.

THE FUTURE

There are several initiatives planned for the year ahead, the development of which will depend in part on our ability to secure further sponsorship.  The Foundation would like to work with NZTA in their redevelopment of the Tracks are for Trains education, and assist in the delivery of the programme where appropriate.  The Foundation would also like to develop a campaign aimed at secondary school aged children – an area which is currently identified as lacking any rail safety education.

The Foundation also wishes to work with KiwiRail and other rail agencies to make changes to legislation so that police will have the capability to issue instant infringement notices to drivers, cyclists and pedestrians who break the law at level crossings. The current law prohibits the police from issuing instant fines, and any prosecution needs to go through the courts. The Foundation wishes to work with the relevant parties to see how we can have level crossings viewed in the same light as indiscretions at traffic intersections. This is something I believe firmly in, as there really is no reason why the rail corridor is any different to road intersections.

SUMMARY

In conclusion, I am extremely happy with where our Foundation is heading. I believe that the public scrutiny of charities in the media recently has been a good thing, and appreciate the need to be completely transparent about our activities and financial reporting.

Our situation is part public contribution but on the whole we generate income from the business sector.  We are not an organisation that takes funds and passes them on to the unfortunate or the needy.   Our goal is to use our funding to educate and inform and to create a platform for a voice that is independent but also a voice which has been affected directly by rail tragedy.

Ours is a Foundation that is reliant on many volunteers and the time that people give to be involved means we can function. With the help we receive in many ways we have made a trend downwards in the incident and fatality rate on the rail corridor.  This is something we will keep doing and one that I will let nothing stop me doing because ultimately zero fatalities has to be the goal for NZ.